The spine at page 144 is cracked, and the section between pages 145 - 158 hangs on by a thread. Otherwise an attractive set, all three volumes are clean, unmarked and for the rest solid. Blue boards with gilt print on spine and gilt design on front board. Customers please note this is a multi volume set which will attract additional postage, particularly for overseas shipping "The journals of the reigns of George IV and William IV, extending from 1817 to 1837, were published in obedience to his directions almost ten years after his death. Few publications have been received with greater interest by the public; five large editions were sold in little more than a year, and the demand in America was as great as in England. These journals were regarded as a faithful record of the impressions made on the mind of a competent observer, at the time, by the events he witnessed and the persons with whom he associated. Greville did not stoop to collect or record private scandal. His object appears to have been to leave behind him some of the materials of history, by which the men and actions of his own time would be judged. He records not so much public events as the private causes which led to them; and perhaps no English memoir-writer has left behind him a more valuable contribution to the history of the 19th century. Greville published anonymously, in 1845, a volume on the Past and Present Policy of England in Ireland, in which he advocated the payment of the Roman Catholic clergy; and he was also the author of several pamphlets on the events of his day. The full span of memoirs eventually appeared in three parts-three volumes covering 1817 to 1837, published in 1874, three for the period from 1837 to 1852, published in 1885, and the final two in 1887, covering 1852 to 1860. When the first part appeared in 1874 some passages caused extreme offence. The copies issued were as far as possible recalled and passages suppressed, however a copy of this original manuscript remained in the Wallace family possession until it was sold and eventually acquired by a bookseller from New York, Gabriel Wells. Wells and the Doubleday publishing house produced The Greville Diary in two volumes in 1927 however these were criticised for poor editing and containing some inaccurate statements.[6] In 1874, when it became known that Greville's diary was going to be printed, the news caused an uproar. Queen Victoria wrote that she was "horrified and indignant at this dreadful and really scandalous book. Mr Greville's indiscretion, indelicacy, ingratitude, betrayal of confidence and shameful disloyalty towards his Sovereign make it very important that the book should be severely censored and discredited". She also said that "The tone in which he speaks of royalty is unlike anything which one sees in history, even of people hundreds of years ago, and is most reprehensible...Of George IV he speaks in such shocking language, language not fit for any gentleman to use" (Wikipedia)